It seemed inappropriate to me that of all of the historic spaceflight models that can be seen in "that Lovely Apollo Room," there was no representation of the very first man-made object to orbit the Earth.
Well, we fixed that.
Thanks to our friends at Real Space Models in Florida, we were able to acquire and build a 1/12 scale model of the Soviet "primary satellite," better know as Sputnik 1 .
Sputnik, the Russian word for "fellow traveler," was placed into orbit on October 4, 1957, using a re-purposed Soviet R-7 rocket. The rocket, the satellite and the launch event, all the work of Sergei Pavlovich Korolov, the Soviet "Chief Designer."
![](image/127867650.jpg)
The model is a simple two-part cast resin sphere, with resin cast parts to form the antenna mounts. The antenna are supplied steel wires, which are installed into the sockets of the mounts.
![](image/127867646.jpg)
The model was painted with a gloss black primary finish, and then coated with "Alclad II Chrome" Chrome Paint, which is unquestionably the best "chrome finish" paint I have ever used. It was the paint recommended by Real Space Models and is available on-line. It comes ready-to-airbrush, right out of the bottle.
![](image/127867652.jpg)
I really like the way Sputnik hangs above everything else on the main disppay shelf, as if to show that it heralded the path forward to the new Space Age.
![](image/127878243_scaled_633x356.jpg)